


history wants you

by oryx



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: (of a sort), Blood and Injury, Gen, Insecurity, Mission Fic, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 06:11:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15813066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryx/pseuds/oryx
Summary: When the other five end up on the wrong side of a business deal, Gai is left on his own to remedy the situation.





	history wants you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sadisthetic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadisthetic/gifts).



“No way,” Luka says. She brings her fist down on the table and leans in to glower at Marvelous. “You can have the box, but not the locket.”  
   
Gai stops short in the doorway to the bridge, the excited announcement of “guys, it looks like there’s a festival going on down there” dying in the back of his throat.  
   
“The hell d’you need it for?” Marvelous asks. “Not like it was even a solo haul. We all brought that one in.”  
   
“Uh,” Gai says nervously. “What’s going on?”  
   
Joe is leaning against the wall, looking rather disinterested as he tosses a large opalescent gemstone into the air and catches it again. “At the moment,” he says, “we’re flat broke.”  
   
Gai blinks.  
   
“That’s why we’re here,” Ahim supplies, looking up from her tea with a placid smile. “We have to sell some things off if we wish to acquire enough funds to keep the Galleon afloat. And there is no better place to sell treasures than Dresda.”  
   
“But Luka doesn’t really like to part with hers,” Doc adds quietly. “She tends to get a little snippy whenever we make a stop here.”  
   
“You want us to be able to eat, right?” Marvelous is saying, raising an eyebrow at her, and Luka stares him down for a long moment before slumping back in her seat with a ‘tch.’  
   
“Fine,” she mutters. “But I’m stealing it back someday, mark my words.”  
   
  
   
  
   
There  _is_  a festival in the city of Dresda today – Doc tells him that they’re celebrating the start of the new lunar cycle, a tradition held over from the days when this used to be just a small fishing village – but the place  _they’re_  headed is in the opposite direction of all the clamor and music and parades. The seedier side of town, one might say, the storefronts suddenly changing from restaurants and antiques to dingy-looking bars and munitions shops. Gai stops to peer into the dark windows of one store, trying to see just what it is they’re selling, but Joe grabs him by the collar and drags him away.  
   
“Curiosity can get you in trouble around here,” he says simply.  
   
They end up in front of what looks like a casino, a gaudy place overlooking the bay, its doors painted a glittering gold, with a towering neon sign on the roof written in a language Gai doesn’t recognize.  
   
“Here to see the Admiral,” Marvelous says to the black-clad guard standing outside, who gives him a small nod, seemingly ready to let them pass unarrested, but hastily steps in the way of their group at the last second, lifting their chin in Gai’s direction.  
   
“Who’s that one, then?”  
   
“He’s with us. He’s crew.”  
   
“Never seen him before.”  
   
“Yeah, because he’s new,” Luka says, already sounding rather impatient with all of this.  
   
“You know the Admiral doesn’t like to meet with strangers,” the guard says coolly. “He expects people to make themselves known in other ways before they come knocking on his door.”  
   
“You think we’d bring some suspicious person with us?” Luka asks, disbelieving. “How many times have we been here?”  
   
The guard shrugs. “The Admiral has gotten wary over the years. Rightfully so, I’d say. Your friend’s welcome into the gambling parlor, if he has money. But don’t try and bring him up to the second floor. It won’t end well.”  
   
Gai listens to this with an odd, sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  
   
“Is there nothing we can do to persuade the issue?” Ahim is asking, her hands clasped tight in front of her like she always does when she’s worried.  
   
“Um,” Gai pipes up. “It’s okay!” He plasters on a smile. “I don’t have to come along. I can just go wander around the city for a while, or something. I probably wouldn’t be very useful in – in business negotiations anyhow. I’d just be in the way.”  
   
Marvelous is looking at him steadily, in a way that feels a bit like having a bright spotlight shone on him. Gai fidgets a little, tugging at the hem of his shirt.  
   
“Makes sense,” Marvelous says finally. “See you back at the Galleon.”  
   
He motions for the guard to stand aside and pushes the casino doors open without another word. Luka gives Gai a commiserating glance, Joe clapping a hand on his shoulder before following after him.  
   
“We should only be an hour, maybe,” Doc says, apologetic. “Um. Just. Maybe head back to the other side of town, if you’re going to wander around. It’s a little scary over here.”  
   
“Indeed,” Ahim says, putting a hand on his arm. “You should attend the festival. They throw a wonderful party on this planet.”  
   
They both wave to him sadly as they step through the casino doors, which swing shut again a moment later with a  _thunk_  of finality, blocking them from sight.  
   
In the awkward silence left behind, the guard arches an eyebrow at him.  
   
“I’ll just… go somewhere else, I guess,” Gai says with a forced laugh, and turns away to start his solo trudge back to the more savory parts of this alien city.  
   
  
   
  
   
The thing is, he hadn’t been off-base. He truly wouldn’t be much use at bargaining with some gambling kingpin over the value of black market goods. What does he really know about any of that? About the actual pirate side of being a Gokaiger?  
   
He half-watches the live music performance across the street, sipping morosely at the drink he’d bought from a street vendor. “Byuafruit” flavored, apparently, a light, breezy taste, a bit like coconut mixed with raspberry, but even the fascination of alien food can’t lift his mood at the moment.  
   
There are days when he wonders how he got here. Well. Technically speaking he  _knows_  how he got here – he steamrolled his way into it through sheer enthusiasm, like he’s done with everything he’s ever wanted. But that it’s lasted this long and this far, past the atmosphere of Earth, all the way out to this distant solar system… That’s the real kicker. Back home it was simply right, being a Gokaiger. It was heroic and fun. It was everything he’d always dreamed of.  
   
Out here in space, though, it’s gradually becoming blatant that he missed a few steps in the recruitment process.  
   
Notably, the “pirate” part.  
   
He supposes Ahim and Doc are a bit at odds with the whole pirate thing, too. But just the idea of a renegade princess from a subjugated kingdom is so inherently  _rebellious_. And Doc knows more than anyone, it seems, about ships and pistols and cannons and how they work, about keeping a crew alive until tomorrow.  
   
By comparison, Gai wonders if he has anything to make him count at all. Super Sentai he was always ready for.  
   
Stealing from the rich and hunting treasure all the way across the known universe? Maybe not so much.  
   
Gai hops to his feet suddenly, shaking his head as if to clear it.  _No_ , he thinks, with as much Gokai Silver gusto as he can manage. This isn’t like him. No time for sitting around feeling unsure. His heroes would tell him to just be himself, to be bold and to never back down!  
   
…Except none of his heroes ever had to figure out how to be a pirate. That brief burst of fiery decisiveness in his heart fades, his shoulders slumping low again.  
   
That’s the problem with having a unique Sentai motif.  
   
He sighs, finishing off his strange fruit drink and milling aimlessly through the crowd to look through the windows of the shops that line this street. Books in one. Odd, colourful desserts in another. And in this one… jewelry. He stops, hand on the glass. The locket in the front display looks almost exactly like the one Luka had been reluctant to part with. Same hexagonal shape, same intricate latticed gold design. This one is cheaper-looking, of course, missing the inlaid gemstones, but it would make a good replacement in a pinch.  
   
He finds himself smiling. This is it, he thinks. This is something he can do.  
   
The only problem is that he has no money. He’d spent the few meager coins from this planet that Doc had given him. Now all he has are a few crumpled thousand yen notes in his back pocket that he’s been holding on to for reasons unbeknownst to him. Sentimental value, maybe.  
   
They clearly hold no such sentiment to the creature behind the counter, whose six eyes blink in unison as they hold the bills up to the light.  
   
“What the hell are these?” they ask.  
   
“Money from Earth,” Gai supplies, grinning in what he hopes is a winning manner.  
   
He receives several blank stares in return.  
   
“It’s, uh… y’know,” he soldiers on. “The third rock from the sun? Though I guess… not your sun… Since it’s a few solar systems over… But the exchange rate is really good!”  
   
“Really?” the shopkeeper says, suspicious but blatantly intrigued.  
   
“Oh, yeah. You can turn one of those into – into a couple hundred thousand, of this planet’s money. When you calculate it out, I’d be giving you way more than you’re asking.”  
   
The creature’s several eyes narrow.  
   
Somehow, it works in the end. He walks out the place with the replacement locket in hand and only a slight sense of guilt to offset his triumph. It’s not really a lie when you don’t know what you’re talking about either, is it? As far as he’s aware, Earth currency  _could_  be a hot commodity around here. And this is how a Gokaiger would go about things, right? Adapting to the situation and making it work in his favor. He’s certain that they’d all be proud of him.  
   
He repeats that to himself as he makes his way back to the port, as he climbs the ropes up to the deck of the Galleon and hauls himself over the starboard railing. It’s utterly quiet on deck, and he frowns. It’s been closer to three hours than one. He’d have expected at least a few of them to be back by now.  
   
“Navi, you heard from any of the others?” he asks, poking his head into the bridge.  
   
“Not since you all left,” Navi says. She tilts her head to the side and clicks her beak. “Did they ditch you, Gai?”  
   
“Wha – they wouldn’t,” he protests. Pouts as he mutters: “Who programmed you to say stuff like that, anyway? They probably just… all decided to stop by the festival, too, and we missed each other.”  
   
No sooner have the words left his mouth than his Cellular begins to ring, and he hurries to fumble it out of his pocket and flip it open. Navi flies over to hover next to him, clearly intent on listening in on the conversation, and he holds the phone so that she can hear better.  
   
“Gai,” Doc’s voice says. “We, uh. Kind of have a problem.”  
   
“…A problem? Where are you guys?”  
   
“Not… entirely sure about that.” Doc is speaking so softly that Gai has to turn up the volume to max. “We think it might be under the city?”  
   
A tense, worried feeling is beginning to creep up through his chest. “What happened?” he asks. “Are you all okay? Is someone after you? Is it bounty hunters? Do you – ”  
   
“Gai.” A firmer voice this time. Joe. “Just listen.”  
   
“Apparently,” Doc continues, his tone exceptionally weary, “the last time we were here, we sold the Admiral some counterfeit items.”  
   
“Not too happy about that, let me tell you,” pipes up another voice in the background. Luka.  
   
“And now we’re. Kind of being held captive. Somewhere underground. Probably to be murdered for our double-crossing ways, or forced to work as servants at his estate for the rest of our lives.” Doc sounds like he’s gradually unraveling as he talks, a nervous laugh undercutting his words. “But it’s no big deal, of course. No big deal, Luka says.”  
   
“We’ve gotten out of worse,” she says, though Gai can’t help but hear a note of uncertainty in her voice as well.  
   
“Oh no,” Gai mutters. His heart is hammering against his ribs. “Oh no, oh no, okay, um. I’ll find where you guys are! I’ll definitely be there to rescue you, so – ”  
   
“No,” Marvelous’ voice says, sharp and sudden. “Luka’s right. We’ve gotten ourselves out of worse. Just take the ship and go.”  
   
“Take… the ship?”  
   
“We can’t afford to lose – ”  
   
He’s cut off by a muffled shout of “Oi! What d’you have there?” The sounds of a scuffle ensue, in which the connection crackles as someone’s hand clearly closes around the phone on the other end of the line, finally resulting in a loud, ominous  _crunch_ , like it being dashed against the ground, and after that. Dead silence.  
   
Gai stares down at the Cellular in his hand. He slowly turns his head to look at Navi, who does much the same.  
   
“Well that’s not good,” she says.  
   
Gai’s hands are twisted in his hair a moment later, pacing back and forth across the bridge while biting back the screaming sound threatening in the back of his throat.  
   
“Take the ship and go?” he repeats. He rounds on Navi, grabbing her out of the air as she squawks in protest and staring manically into her eyes. “ _Take the ship and go?_  Why’d he say that? Doesn’t he think I can save them? Because I totally can! I’m great at rescuing!”  
   
“W-well the Galleon is pretty valuable, Gai. That Admiral guy might try and take it as payment! And a pirate would rather die than give up their ship, you know.”  
   
Gai blinks at her. Some of his panic starts to ebb away bit by bit, leaving a strange, unnamable feeling in its place. He releases his hold on her, and she ruffles her mechanical wings in a huff.  
   
“Right,” he says softly. “Yeah. A pirate would think that way.”  
   
He glances around the bridge, at the signs of occupancy everywhere. Feels the floorboards creak and sway beneath his feet. He likes the Galleon. It’s a second home, now that his planet is so many lightyears away.  
   
But he’s not about to leave his crewmates behind just to save it. That’s why he’s here, isn’t he?  
   
Not to be a pirate, but to follow them to ends of the universe.  
   
“You’re not going to listen to Marvelous’ orders, are you?” Navi says. She sounds entirely unsurprised by this possibility.  
   
Gai traces the outline of his Ranger Key in his pocket without answering.  
   
  
   
  
   
In the end, he can’t quite figure out how to work the experimental cloaking device for the Galleon that Doc has been fiddling with. He frowns at the mass of metal and wires with its glowing crystal core from every angle, finally stepping back and saying: “I’m gonna kick it,” right as Navi tells him, “don’t kick it, Gai.”  
   
“Too late,” he says with a grin, his boot connecting with the side of the thing with a resounding  _clang_.  
   
For a long moment, he stands there holding his breath.  
   
When it starts up with a shaky-sounding whir, the crystal core flaring to life, he punches the air in excitement.  
   
“If somebody gets in here anyway and tries to steal the ship, peck them really hard, okay?” he says to Navi, whose protests get cut off as he closes the cabin door and locks it securely behind him. This will have to do. With luck, they’ll all get back to find the Galleon right where they left it.  
   
Now for the tough part.  
   
His first move has to be getting inside that casino. But even he knows that breaking down the front door and running in guns blazing might not be the smartest plan, no matter how much his basic instincts are urging him to do so.  
   
He’ll have to be stealthy, he thinks with a nod. Just like a ninja. Like the Hurricanegers.  
   
Damn, he wishes he still had the Shurikenger Ranger Key.  
   
The growing festivities on the other side of the city seem to have lured even many of the shadier occupants away, and as he takes the path along the docks he encounters next to no one. Those he does come across seem to take no notice of him – hunched figures sitting out on the ends of the jetties, fishing lines cast into the murky grey water of the bay. At the point where the docks end, the land rising up to form a cliff, he steels himself and begins to climb, carefully shuffling along a small ledge of stone that crumbles here and there beneath his feet. Just like rock climbing back home, he thinks brightly, pointedly ignoring the rather sheer drop below. When he cranes his head back to see the lights of the casino above him, he secures some kind of handhold and starts to climb up, instead, eventually hefting himself over the edge and on to the all-but-dead grass in the shadow of the casino’s balcony overhead. There’s an employee back entrance directly in front of him, and he flattens himself against one of the balcony’s supports to wait for someone to emerge from it.  
   
He doesn’t have to wait long. A tiny alien creature dressed a bit like a bartender steps through the door a minute later, talking loudly into a device strapped to their wrist. They pause to prop the door open with a rock before resuming their rather angry-sounding conversation, pacing away to kick at the grass in frustration while the person on the other end yells.  
   
Gai seizes this opportunity to sprint headlong towards the open door, dive-rolling through it and jumping to his feet inside the casino with a feeling of triumph already swelling in his chest. Stage one infiltration: already complete. The Hurricanegers would be proud of him, he’s sure.  
   
Now that he’s here, though, skulking through the lower halls and barely avoiding running into other employees, a certain fact is beginning to dawn on him.  
   
He has no idea what to do next. He’d neglected to come up with any steps of the plan past this, and can almost hear Doc’s voice sighing “just look before you leap for once, please, Gai.”  
   
Maybe next time he’ll finally take that advice.  
   
He finds a service elevator at the end of the twisting halls; slips inside furtively and stands there with his hand hovering over the buttons. He can’t read the alien numbers, but just by the order he assumes that the top one must be for floor two.  
   
 _Don’t try and bring him up to the second floor. It won’t end well._  
   
That’s somewhere to start, at least.  
   
He looks around the corner of the elevator when the doors open with a  _ding_. Luckily it’s all but silent at the moment on this floor, and he steps out to gawk at the gaudy décor – fake-looking gold filigree on every surface, the hall lined with ornamental vases and marble sculptures that must be from this Admiral guy’s collection. The carpet beneath his feet is almost unpleasantly plush.  
   
As he wanders he begins to hear the murmur of voices from an open doorway ahead, creeping closer to peer inside. Two employees dressed much like the guard at the front door, sitting at a table and playing a game of cards (though unlike any game he’s ever known back on Earth). As he watches, one of them gets called out to from the next room over – the commanding tone of a superior – and they sigh as they lay their cards down and signal to their opponent to wait for them for a minute.  
   
The door closes behind them, and now there is only one.  
   
Gai wastes no time thinking. He launches himself at the lone guard as soon as they get up to stretch, tackling them to the ground, whipping his pistol from his belt and pressing the barrel against the underside of their chin like he’s sure he’s seen Marvelous do. The lock is on at the moment, but hopefully they won’t notice that.  
   
“Don’t make any wise guy moves,” he hisses, attempting to put on his most dangerous expression. “Or – or else.”  
   
They blink up at him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, their triangular feline-esque ears flattened against their head.  
   
“Listen. Those people who went to see your boss a while ago,” he says, leaning in close. “Where did they get taken to?”  
   
“The… the pirates? Hey, buddy, I just work here, alright? I don’t know anyth – ”  
   
Gai presses the pistol a little harder into their jawline, narrowing his eyes.  
   
“Okay! Okay, um. I can’t really say for sure, but. Anyone who gets on the Admiral’s bad side usually gets taken into the complex below the casino. The only way I know to get in is a secret elevator a couple rooms down from here. The – the one with the crown above the door. You have to hit some switch but I don’t know where it is.”  
   
“Huh.” Gai removes the pressure of his pistol with a taken aback smile. “You’re pretty helpful, y’know that? Sorry about tackling you. Desperate times, desperate measures and all that. You should really – ”  
   
“Oi!”  
   
He snaps his head up to find the other guard having returned from the next room over. Glowering rather heavily, too.  
   
“We’ve got an intruder in here, boss,” they call over their shoulder, reaching for the club-like weapon hanging from their belt, and Gai takes this as a good time to run for it.  
   
He skids to a halt in front of the door with the crown above it – a relief pattern, painted gold like everything in this place – with a growing crowd of guards on his tail. Some sort of alert seems to have gone out, as he can see others emerging from the rooms up ahead, and he throws himself through the door with a little too much nervous energy, slamming the bolt shut behind him and rushing to push the closest bookcase in front of it as a makeshift blockade. He doubts that will hold for too long, but it’s something, at least.  
   
It’s only then that he realizes that he forgot to check  _this_  room for guards.  
   
He spins around just in time to avoid a thrown dagger, which sinks into the door behind him with a  _thunk_.  
   
“Where d’you think  _you’re_  going?” the guard asks with a scowl. He doesn’t even have time for a snappy comeback before they’re closing the distance to throw a punch that he barely dodges. With the next punch he isn’t quite so lucky – it slams straight into his right eye, sending him reeling back with a hiss of pain, his palm pressed against it, the impact like a jackhammer to the skull. As if he’d been rattled just a little to the side of himself. He recovers just enough to roll away from the guard’s next attack, lifting his shaky hands in a conciliatory gesture.  
   
“H-hey, uh. We don’t have to do this, right? I’m just trying to help my crewmates. Y’know?”  
   
They seem to consider this for a moment. “Nice try,” they say finally, and pull another dagger from their belt.  
   
Gai grimaces. Fighting ordinary people, no matter how alien, is a proving to be much less enjoyable than fighting Zangyack. The lack of heroism involved just takes all the wind from his sails. He considers his opponent. He could potentially knock them out with the blunt end of his pistol. Or maybe –  
   
His back hits the wall as he weighs his options. Somehow, unwittingly, his elbow knocks against a certain, hollow spot, eliciting a loud  _clunk_.  
   
Next to him, the wall itself pulls back to reveal the metal interior of the so-called secret elevator.  
   
He stares at it in bewilderment for maybe half a second too long before diving through, jabbing the ‘close doors’ button repeatedly. Not quite fast enough, though. His enemy’s dagger comes hurtling through the gap right before the doors slide shut and the thing jolts into motion.  
   
It takes him a moment to even realize it. He stands there, breathing hard as the elevator makes its descent, and –  
   
Glances down to find the blade of the dagger sunken deep into his shoulder.  
   
“Ah,” he says. Well that’s a problem.  
   
It doesn’t hurt much, necessarily. Just an odd, numbing sort of twinge. Maybe that’s why he feels so oddly calm. As long as he leaves it in and undisturbed he imagines it won’t cause him too much grief – he read that on the internet once, he’s pretty sure. But if he has to fight, for real this time rather than being granted a lucky escape, he can’t imagine it would be possible with an entire knife in his shoulder.  
   
And getting to the others is more important than a little pain, in the long run. He nods to himself thoughtfully.  
   
The elevator halts, doors sliding open to reveal a long white-walled hallway, just as he wraps his hand around the hilt of the dagger and yanks it out in one swift motion.  
   
Immediately, he somewhat regrets this decision. The pain is burning, piercing, blood splattering on to the white tile as he staggers out into the hall. He shoves his fist into his mouth to stifle his yell but doesn’t quite succeed in muffling it entirely. His teeth dig into his hand as he rides out the initial wave, until gradually it settles into a more bearable but continuous throb. The dark stain of red on this shirt is growing by the moment, soaking into his scarf as well, and he feels a slight lurch of nausea in the pit of his stomach. Never been much good around blood. He averts his eyes from it and tries desperately to focus on the place he just stepped into.  
   
The hall is lined with only a few doors, each with a small inset window, and he stands on his tiptoes to peer through each one in turn, even this small exertion making him grit his teeth.  
   
In the last room on the right he spots a flash of colour and manages to forget his current predicament for a moment. It’s the others’ Cellulars and Ranger Keys, tossed haphazard across a table. There doesn’t seem to be any guard posted – they probably wouldn’t expect an intruder to care about old phones and trinkets – and he slips his way inside, tugging off his stained scarf and using it to awkwardly bundle everything in.  
   
Blood trickles down the inside of his wrist as he stops to stare at a posted sign where a sequence of alien numbers is printed. He’s starting to feel a bit lightheaded.  
   
He imagines that’s probably not a great sign.  
   
He tucks the bundle of devices under his good arm and steps back into the hall just in time for the elevator to  _ding_ , opening to reveal the guard from the room above flanked by three others, and Gai promptly turns on his heel and sprints around the corner. This rescue mission is involving a lot more running away than the dashing “swoop in to save the day” he’d initially envisioned. Which wouldn’t be so bad, if a significant section of his body didn’t feel like it was on fire at the moment.  
   
His vision is starting to blur slightly around the edges. He can’t seem to think straight, which is maybe why he takes a turn on a whim, and then another, until he’s lost his pursuers but is also hopelessly lost himself. He stops in the middle of the hall, his breath ragged, arm hanging at his side like a leaden weight.  
   
Somewhere nearby, he can hear a muffled hum of voices that sound rather familiar. He takes a few steps further.  
   
“… still can’t believe you seriously sold him fakes.”  
   
“You can stop repeating that, y’know. Not doing us any good. And like you never got us neck deep in anything before.”  
   
“Wha – like when?”  
   
“Like Tazmagor? Remember that?”  
   
“And Beteq,” another voice chimes in. “And that one moon in the Cassius system.”  
   
“That’s…! Those were all… different…” The voice trails off with audible pout.  
   
Gai rounds the corner to find that somehow, against all odds, he has managed to find his way to exactly the place he meant to be.  
   
“Guys!” He runs to the bars of the prison cell, causing Luka to drop the hairpin she was using to try and poke at the electronic keypad keeping them locked in.  
   
“ _Gai_?”  
   
“Oh my,” Ahim says, pressing a hand to her cheek. She’s got a mottled purple-ish bruise marring her face, marks on her wrists from where ropes cut into them (now lying in pieces on the floor), but otherwise looks unharmed. The rest of them seem much the same, and Gai grins, relief washing over him even as he sways a bit on his feet.  
   
“Oi, what the hell’re you doing here?” Marvelous asks, reaching out to grab the bars, knuckles white around the metal. His eyes are flinty. “What’s with the blood?”  
   
“I’m here to save you guys, obviously,” Gai says, frowning. “Hold on, I think I remember… what the code was…”  
   
He stares blankly at the keypad. His thoughts feel distant and difficult to grasp, as if they were water slipping through his fingers, but he forces himself to dredge it up all the same: that strange sequence of unrecognizable numbers, punching them in with some difficulty, his hand shaking. It must have worked, he thinks, as he hears the bars click and slide open. It’s fine now.  
   
He tips over, heading face-first towards the tile, and two arms circle around his waist just in time to catch him.  
   
“I told you not to come here,” Marvelous’ voice says. He makes a ‘tch’ sound under his breath.  
   
“Did you really expect him to listen to that?” Joe says from his other side.  
   
Gai manages to pull himself back up, using Marvelous’ arm as support, just enough to be able to smile at him apologetically. “Sorry, Marvelous-san. I know… you said we couldn’t afford to lose the ship… But I couldn’t just leave! I couldn’t… leave you behind…”  
   
Tiredness crashes over his head like a sudden wave. Even the pain in his shoulder seems muted, in this moment. He can feel his eyes closing against his will, as if they were weighted, blackness overtaking him as he pitches forward again, Joe hurrying to catch him again in turn.  
   
The last thing he hears before he passes out is Marvelous, muttering:  
   
“I didn’t mean the ship, idiot.”  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
“… not really great, is it?”  
   
A bitter laugh. “Bit of an understatement. Nobody else in the galaxy buys for those prices. Trying to barter with some small-time backroom op who doesn’t know the value of Uylan silver from rhodenite… That’s what it’s gonna be, next time.” An irritated exhale. “And they swiped everything we brought with us. Even that locket. You know how much that was worth?”  
   
Gai opens his eyes, and spends a full minute staring at the familiar worn wooden ceiling of the bridge before it finally registers that that is where he is. So it didn’t get stolen, then. That’s a weight off his mind.  
   
He must have made some sort of noise in acknowledgement of that, as Ahim’s face appears in his range of vision a moment later. “Ah, you are awake,” she says, cheeks dimpling as she smiles down at him. “I’m glad. How do you feel, Gai?”  
   
He considers this. He feels rather like he’s been hit in the chest with the universe’s largest hammer, the fatigue like a deep, physical ache in his solar plexus. But his shoulder, oddly enough, is little more than a slow, muted pulse of pain beneath the tight bandages. They must have given him some of those alien drugs Doc keeps “just in case.”  
   
“I’m okay,” he rasps, and Doc hurries to help him prop himself upright, pushing a glass of water against his lips until he drinks.  
   
“Oi,” Marvelous says, and Gai looks over to find him in his Captain’s chair, lounging back in it with his fingers drumming against the armrests and an unreadable expression clouding his face. “What were you thinking with all that? We would’ve gotten out of there eventually. We always do.”  
   
Gai nods slowly. “I know. But even then… I still had to go after you. Just because. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t. And Marvelous-san… you would’ve done the same, right?”  
   
Seated at the dining table off to the side, Joe’s mouth twitches into a small, amused smile.  
   
Marvelous turns to glower at him. “That’s different. I’m the Captain. And you’re – ”  
   
He breaks off. Gai blinks at him expectantly.  
   
“Forget it,” Marvelous mutters, climbing to his feet and ambling towards the kitchen. “‘M too hungry for this.”  
   
Gai watches him walk away with an inexplicably warm feeling in his chest. The snippets of conversation he’d overheard start to drift back to him, then, and his eyes widen with an “oh,” reaching deep into his pocket (wincing only a little as he does so) and procuring the golden locket that he’d bought seemingly an eternity ago. It swings on its chain, reflecting the low orange light of the bridge. He’d forgotten all about it, but through some stroke of fate it hadn’t been lost or broken during the hectic events of earlier.  
   
“Here, Luka,” he says brightly, holding it out for her to take. “I got this from a shop! I know it’s not fancy like that other one, but. It’s pretty close, right? Makes a good replacement.”  
   
Luka’s expression is odd as she hesitantly reaches her hand out, the chain coiling as Gai places it in her outstretched palm. She runs a thumb over its gold latticed surface.  
   
“This is the cheapest recreation I’ve ever seen,” she says, but she’s smiling now, too. She laughs – sudden and sharp. Runs a hand through her hair. “Man. Who else other than you would stop to buy something this pointless?” A pause. “Thanks,” she says as she reaches around to hook the chain behind her neck.  
   
Gai grins back at her, and feels a bit of his tiredness ease.


End file.
